State Grants Extra Time To Realign Schools

West Hartford Board Hopes To Have Plan Before Deadline

WEST HARTFORD — The state Wednesday granted West Hartford more time to reorganize its elementary schools -- but it's extra time the board of education hopes it won't have to use.

The State Board of Education unanimously gave the board three more months to work on its plan to reorganize the schools, setting an April 8 deadline to get a plan from the town, said Tom Murphy, a state Department of Education spokesman.

Devising the plan has already taken hundreds of hours of study, debate and discussion and has embroiled the community in controversy for much of the past six months. It is time to act on a plan, said local board members, who are planning to take a vote the week of Feb. 6.

``They've granted the extension for three months, but it's our desire to have this over,'' board Vice Chairwoman Patricia L. Genser said. ``We've put a great many things on the shelf for the past year. . . . We've got a great number of [other] issues to deal with.''

Board member Norman W. Sousa Jr. said, ``Hopefully we don't get to the top of the hill and it keeps going. . . . I think we can [act] and I think we should. It's not fair to not let staff and parents know what is going to happen come September.''

Wednesday night, the board began a series of workshops in which it will study the details of numerous proposed school reorganization plans.

Tuesday, the board will review a plan recommended by the racial balance advisory committee to preserve the town's kindergarten through fifth grade elementary school structure with some modifications, School Superintendent John J. Battles said. Information about costs, transportation schedules and the number of students who might be moved is to be presented at that meeting, Battles said.

In making its proposal, the advisory committee rejected four other plans that are still being considered by the board. They are: having a kindergarten through Grade 2 and grades 3 through 5 elementary school structure; keeping the kindergarten through Grade 5 structure with redistricting and magnet schools; open enrollment; and a plan that requires the addition of a third middle school.

The week of Jan. 16, the board will begin holding a series of public meetings at schools, senior centers and elsewhere at which it will explain all proposals, Battles said.

As the board began its final push toward adopting a plan, another group of parents emerged to voice opposition to the alternative chosen by the advisory committee -- even though redistricting maps for the plan have not been made public.

Residents in the Morley School area are against a recommendation in the committee's report that calls for redistricting children in that neighborhood to Whiting Lane School, and vice versa, said Jim Green, a Morley School parent.

The redistricting proposed would not meet a school board standard of having a percentage of so- called ``impacted'' students -- those who receive federally subsidized lunches or for whom English is not a first language -- that is evenly distributed throughout the town, Green said. That is because the proposed exchange of students between the schools would have no effect on thinning the percentage of ``impacted'' students at either school, Green said.

``What's the point?'' he said. ``Why are you shuffling students in and out of Morley when it has no impact?''

But Genser said she was somewhat puzzled by the group's efforts, considering that no proposed redistricting maps had been made public.

``The board has yet to see the maps but we've been getting letters about a supposed redistricting for Morley,'' Genser said.